The One-Hundred

ｔｗｏ

My stomach growls as I stare at the dark water, unsure if what just happened really did happen. The boy had appeared and vanished behind the rock as if he was a part of the sea himself. My brain can't wrap around the thought of anyone doing that, let alone meeting a boy around my age that doesn't seem to have much physical strength to keep him safe. No one I know is exactly my age—no one really lives that long, although life expectancy is getting longer because of recent inventions within the tribe.

A strange sense of unease slips into my veins as I stare at the never-ending ocean stretched out before me. Something tells me this is an unnatural occurrence, seeing something like that. Could I be hallucinating? I haven't eaten in two days... could that be it?

Maybe I should have killed that deer. Both of them.

Tani-mah and Rai-is aren't going to be happy if I tell them I found a deer and didn't shoot it.

It growls again, interrupting my thoughts. I exhale and head back into the trees, spending the rest of the day searching for the deer—or something that isn't a squirrel. I'd take on a hog, at this point, but they're terrifying and deadly. After meeting that boy, my brain is too distracted to take on an animal that could kill or handicap me.

I decide to make my way back up to the village as the sun sets, the biggest one of the three on the island: Initi. The other two are Wurn and Revli.

I make my way up the tall inclined island, using branches and fallen logs to help me up the steep slope. The Tribe Leaders taught us this island used to be something called a mountain before the Flood happened thousands of years ago, wiping out almost all of humanity and nearly covering the Earth. The remaining humans banned together and created the First Tribe of Initi.

There are plenty of legends and stories about the First Tribe, but, of course, no one knows what they really saw or went through. Stories get so muddled over the years, and I've learned that in my own experience growing up and hearing different tales. I can only assume there are multiple things kept hidden from curious ears that don't need to know everything.

The Initi Tribe was the first tribe, the only tribe on our island. Generations later, there was a massive dispute between the three Tribe Leaders and they parted ways, creating the three tribes we know now: Initi, Revli, and Wurn. The tribe names stood for something in the ancient language used by the first tribesmembers. Today, we only know those three words in the mystery language: initi is peace, revli is love, and wurn is war. These tribes were said to once work together and bring harmony to the island, until a war between them severed all ties with each other.

Initi stood back, startled by the corruption within the tribes that had made its way outward. Revli stated it wanted to become one large tribe again and work their problems out through love and kindness, while Wurn, being the largest and most powerful tribe on the island at the time, didn't want to give up and share its selfish desires. It was Initi that eventually ended the war and everything was okay again; everything had balanced out. Or at least that's the history we've been taught over the years and from the Tribe Leaders themselves.